Title	THE VALENTINE EXPERIMENT
Brand	ANTHON BERG
Product/Service	ANTHON BERG CHOCOLATE
Category	A06. Events & Experiential (incl. stunts)
Entrant Company	ROBERT/BOISEN & LIKE-MINDED Copenhagen, DENMARK
Advertising Agency	ROBERT/BOISEN & LIKE-MINDED Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production Company	GOBSMACK PRODUCTIONS Copenhagen, DENMARK

Name	Company	Position
Søren Christensen	Robert/boisen/Like-minded	Strategist
Heinrich Vejlgaard	Robert/boisen/Like-minded	Creative Director
Sofie Hallas	Robert/boisen/Like-minded	Art Director
Rie Sloth Rasmussen	Robert/boisen/Like-minded	Art Director
Michael Robert	Robert/boisen/Like-minded	Executive Creative Director
Susanne Sass Ebsen	Robert/boisen/Like-minded	Account Director
Christina Erritzøe	Gobsmack Productions	Executive Producer
Cille Silverwood-Cope	Gobsmack Productions	Line Producer
Niels Nørløv		Director
Dan Aagaard		Director of Photography
Morton Giese/Rasmus Gitz		Editors
Magnus Sveinn Jonsonn	Gobsmack Productions	Vfx
Thomas Stender	Gimmick	Vfx
Lars-Bo Kjær	Audio Lounge	Sound
Tine Møller/Karsten Nielsen	SBS Discovery	Technical setup
Henrik Lindstrand		Music

The Campaign

A recent study showed that 51% of Danes would like to be more generous for their partner, but keep on forgetting it. As Valentine's Day was approaching we wanted remind people about being generous and enforce Anthon Bergs message 'you can never be too generous'. Attracting a skeptical target group where only 2% of Danish men actually love Valentines, we needed a new approach. Following the many popular shows like Mythbusters that use scientific methods to determine the cause and effect, we teamed up with Neuroscientist Professor and TED-talker Paul Zak, to conduct an experiment and film it. By measuring the levels of oxytocin in a person's blood, one can measure levels of happiness. The purpose of the experiment was to determine whether giving chocolate to your loved one, would not only make your better half happier, but also make you happier. In order to maximize effect we partnered with one of Denmark's biggest magazines that followed and reported the experiment from first row. Once the experiment was finalized and we had the result, we gathered everything in a short movie which we together with angled Press Releases send away to specific media houses and blogs. Each one getting a story that would fit their core audience in order to maximize relevance: An emotional story line for the ladies and scientific proof for their male counter parts.

The Brief

The goals were to maximize reach in order to achieve higher sales result during Valentines. In order to define the right strategy and solution, we conducted a research to understand Danes attitude towards Valentine's Day, and how generous they considered themselves to be, both during Valentine and in general.

Execution

The planning phase of the PR-campaign was fall 2014. Paul Zak was in Denmark to do the film in December, where journalists were invited. Around Valentines, the PR campaign was executed. Our strategy was two-stringed: We made 7 different PR angles (scientific, male, female, marketing, trade, local, and video news release) to be able to reach a broad range of media. And we made exclusive PR partnerships with non-competing media who got their own story. The PR strategy was not changed along the way since the elements of the strategy did what the purpose was: to secure a lot of awareness of the film and campaign under and after in many different channels. However, even though the first PR burst gave a lot of awareness, one week after the launch of the film, even more PR follow up was executed in order to secure more views at the Youtube-channel.

The key message – that Danish men do not like Valentine, but they like giving their partner a gift – was dominant. The scientific angle/movie with Paul Zak was the 'hard content'. No negative press coverage was published. Changes in Net Promoter Score was not measured (Anthon Berg might have some figures regarding target groups/preferences/changes in the period). We sent the PR material 10 days before Valentine, giving us a limited time frame. In spite, the campaign received phenomenal results: incredible media coverage in Denmark with +130 press clips (+170 global press mentions) and estimated reach of +56 million people. PR value in itself is estimated to 10 million DDK (approx. €1.340.000), reaching PR ROI of 1198%! Sales went up 9,6% compared to same period last year. It reached engagement levels of 11% (benchmark 1-2%), more than 50% of Anthon Berg's fans on Facebook either share/liked or commented the film!

The Strategy

Anthon Berg is a Danish chocolatier established in 1884 with a mission to inspire generosity. Being an old traditional brand it has throughout time lost touch with the 'younger' target audiences who consider it as a chocolate you buy for your grand parents. Hence we needed to do three things: 1) Re-ignite the brand amongst Danes between 20-55 years old, showcasing the brand as contemporary, dusting of the 'old' feeling 2) Showcase an occasion, in this case Valentine's Day, where the brands product plays a relevant role in the everyday, while lifting people's spirits around that day 3) And lastly, boost sales